Thank you! Good idea about the division. I will definitely implement it like this.
I didn't know about digitalReadFast/digitalWriteFast. They will certainly come in handy at some point. As you expected, with the five tubes of my calculator, regular I/O operations seem to be fast enough. At least I don't see any flicker in the multiplexing. I agree with old LED displays being fascinating. I have only seen them in pictures and videos by people telling me how nice they look so far. I will have to take a closer look at them. As for comments, yeah, I'm a bit lazy about that. I saw someone forked the project and, from the looks of it, had an AI document the code for them. I will try to better myself :) Senk Ju Paolo Cravero <[email protected]> schrieb am Di., 2. Juli 2024, 10:03: > Well done and well documented Senk Ju (except there are no comments in > your very clean code)! > > As far as the division operation goes, you may use a software trick to > display the decimal part: the integer part is shown as the result, but > press-and-hold the equal (rocket) button will display the decimal part. Or > let the equal button switch between integer and decimal, but that become > confusing. This trick, using a dedicated key, was used on some 1970's > calculator that had too few digits to display a full result that was > supported by the computing logic, instead. > > Reading your code I noticed you used the standard Arduino > digitalRead/digitalWrite library functions. They hide lots of sanity checks > and they are pretty slow (56 cycles people say). > digitalReadFast/digitalWriteFast or direct access would provide a faster > I/O (down to 2 cycles) at the expense of loosing readability of your code. > You probably don't need this kind of optimisation with 5 digits but I am > sure your journey will not stop here :) > > I think that early LED displays are equally fascinating, have a very > peculiar deep red color (660 nm) and are easier to drive. They do draw > "high" current as their efficiency was low, resulting in heat generation > which leads to self-destruction: just run them at the lower acceptable > supply voltage. > > Paolo > > > On Sun, Jun 30, 2024 at 3:18 AM Senk Ju <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hello! >> >> I'm new to this group and wanted to take the opportunity to introduce >> myself quickly. >> >> My interest in Nixie tubes started in 2016 when I saw this video >> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4-pgzyT0No> by Techmoan. I bought a >> ready-made Nixie clock shortly after, but never considered building my own >> projects with them, as I knew they required fairly high voltages and I >> didn't have any experience in electrical engineering. >> >> Last year, however, I was sitting around bored and remembered that I had >> always wanted to build something using a microcontroller. I'm usually more >> of a software guy, but I've always found the prospect of writing software >> that actually does something "in reality" intriguing. I didn't feel >> comfortable working with high voltages, so I did some research into >> alternative display technologies with a similar charm to Nixies, and >> stumbled upon VFD tubes. >> >> Without any real plan in mind, I ordered some from an Ukrainian seller on >> eBay. I initially considered using IV-11 tubes, but decided to use IV-12 >> instead, as I preferred them to have real pins that could be used with a >> socket. >> >> It took me almost 10 months to complete my project, mostly because I was >> learning along the way and didn't own any equipment when I started. I am, >> howver, very pleased with the outcome. I have created a GitHub repository >> with more details for those who are interested. >> >> https://github.com/oskar2517/vfd-tube-calculator >> >> I now feel relatively comfortable working with Nixie tubes (mostly >> because I now own a power supply that lets me lower the current to a >> non-lethal value) and am currently in the midst of building my first Nixie >> clock using ZM1020 tubes for the digits and a ZM1070 tube for the seconds' >> indicator. >> >> I'm not only interested in Nixie tubes, but most of the display >> technology from around that period. Besides Nixies and VFD tubes, I have >> played around with Numitrons, Dekatrons and Pixie tubes and have recently >> acquired an E1T tube which I am looking forward to figuring out how to >> drive. >> >> Senk Ju >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "neonixie-l" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/700b5d38-3086-4685-881e-01945e2c9385n%40googlegroups.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/700b5d38-3086-4685-881e-01945e2c9385n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "neonixie-l" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CABj2VaaVwk8MqzUmn%2BU_eMzeLKDfnXte0J%3D66SV1fteO-Q40jA%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CABj2VaaVwk8MqzUmn%2BU_eMzeLKDfnXte0J%3D66SV1fteO-Q40jA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. 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